This huge room spans quite a lot of floor space, the support beams crisscrossing at even points throughout the room. The two sides are divided fairly between the Enlisted and Officers with an unseen line more or less running down the center of the room. A couple pool and card tables sit in no-man's land with a series of regular mess tables at the rear of the room, nearest a counter full of minor refreshments like coffee and bags of chips. Magazines and reading material are spread out over the couched seating areas and a few televisions are set-up with a couple of video game systems made available.

Post-Holocaust Day: #444

It's a wonderful day in the neighbourhood. It's a bit quiet in the Rec Room at the moment, a few people playing triad and a couple of people are playing pool. Gallagher, for her part, is reading a magazine. Rereading is probably more like it, but when there's not much else to read, what are you going to do? Flipping the page, she glances over the article. However, seeming that she is disinterested by it, she almost immediately flips the page.

The day gets a little more colorful when Mark enters. The normal red-orange coveralls worn by snipes is halfway removed with the arms tied around his waist. Around it his bright orange tropical shirt billows in the air around him while he walks. The man, as usual, is dirty - but thankfully(!) the shirt is clean. He stops for a cup of joe before heading over towards Gallagher's table. "You know, I found the article in there about 'Top Ten Ways To Show Your Man You Love Him' to be completely useless. Of course it would probably help if I was into guys." He sips on the mug, nodding in all seriousness.

As her boss approaches and makes his comment, Gallagher looks up at him and can't help but smirk a little. "Yeah. I'd imagine it might help if you were. But then again, it could all just be useless in the end, couldn't it? Might not be just you who finds it useless." She smiles. "I haven't tried them out, so I couldn't tell you."

Mark chuckles. "No kidding. I could show it to my wife but I think she'd probably use it for kindling." The man's grin holds. "But yeah, no joke. At least the mag is good for a few laughs. Especially at this point." He unceremoniously takes up a chair and settles into it. The mug goes on the table but he doesn't let go just yet. "Good times, though. I haven't been able to sit down with a magazine in, geez, probably months. I miss that." Mark was only promoted to ChEng back in December after an emergency replacement of the original - Gabrieli. "You do any reading or generally just the magazines laying around?"

"Well, better to have spare kindling around than to run out!" Gallagher grins and shakes her head. Closing up the magazine, she gazes over at her boss, shifting around in her chair to get in a better sitting position to chat. "I come down here every now and then. I mostly just read the mags. Don't really got much books around to read, you know?"

Mark chuckles and shrugs. "The library is decent for a lot of stuff. Its a lot of tech manuals and procedural junk that's useful to the military. But they've got some good stuff down there. Hell, I found a copy of Taurian for Dummies down there and have been trying to teach myself. Rough goin." He grins in spite of himself and sips at the mug. "So if its mostly just down here once in awhile, what about the rest of time? Hang out at Pete's? Hang around the bunks and chatterbox with friends?" The mug hovers near his mouth before he takes another sip.

"Huh…didn't realize that! Then again…I haven't really made use of the library." Gallagher smiles coyly. "Hey, if you learn Taurian, it might come in handy some day. You never know, right?" She shrugs a little bit. "Yeah, hang down in the bunks, the observation deck, Pete's every now and then. Just trying to keep myself occupied, you know?"

"Leave it to a massive nerd to recommend a good library." Mark gives her a sage nod, tilting the mug to add a little more assurance to his words - even if they are puncuated by a smile. "My wife is Taurian. Lots of little good insights and helpful tips to learning language and customs. I actually kinda dig it. I'm from Picon and have all the culture of a granite slate. Weee." He even fingerspins with it. "Yeah, I get that. Easy enough. Where are you from originally, anyway? -Wait. Libran? Leonis?" He could read her file but he isn't that kinda guy.

Gallagher giggles lightly. "Well, I'm use to it. My dad was a JAG officer, and always reading." She listens intently, nodding along to his words. "Your wife is Taurian and you haven't learned the language yet? Tsk tsk, sir!" She giggles again. "But it sounds interesting, though. I mean, it's never really too late to learn something new, is it?" Shrugging she tilts her head slightly. "Oh, I'm from Aquaria."

"JAG? No kidding. So you didn't feel like following in Dad's footsteps? Take up the mighty pen and make war with words not your thing? Seems you picked up at least a little bit from your dad." Mark gestures the mug towards the magazine and smirks. "Ha! Nah, she liked me before I even started. Luckily the drugs I was slipping her for that worked." The man winks. "But she means a lot so I wanted to make the effort to immerse myself in her world since she tolerates me as well as she does." To the point of where she's from, the man chuckles. "Hey! Just like my shirt! Had a Petty Officer tell me this thing was Aquarian Cabana Camo."

"Nah. Law was never really my thing. Couldn't get into it." Gallagher shakes her head. "I follow more after my mom. She was an electrical engineer as well. With my dad busy and away a lot with his duties, so I really spent time with her, you know? That's how I got my interest in it." She smiles. "Well, at least you've got her interest. Without that, I doubt the marriage would've worked! Though I wouldn't know…never been married." She shrugs. "Aquarian Cabana Camo?" The Aquarian lass takes a moment to actually look the shirt over for the first time. "Yeah. I can see that. It has a good Aquarian theme going for it."

Mark nods along. "Ah, no kidding? Was your mom also Navy or was she doing private sector work?" he asks with lofted brow. Its the sort of 'I wonder if I knew her' expression and tilt of his voice. "Shame about the marriage thing, though. I never had much use for it. I worked all the time. I used to plug eighty hour work weeks pretty regularly so meeting women wasn't really something I put high on my list of priorities. Then the bombs fall? My job went bye bye. Bank account zero'd? Lots more time on my hand to look at people around me? Gods work in mysterious ways for us sometimes." The man smiles.

"She wasn't the military type. Private sector. It's why I spent most of my time with her, really. While my dad was off working for the Navy as a JAG officer, I stayed with my mom and older brothers." Gallagher shrugs. "Must be nice to have a wife, though. Me, I was here on Cerberus when the bombs fell. Can't say as I'm not glad, though. Wouldn't've wanted to be planetside when it happened." She smiles a little bit. "They do really work mysteriously sometimes, they do."

"Nice. Mom sounded like the smart one. I did six years in the Navy to get cash for college. Went to school and never went back to the Navy." Until.. "Well, you know. Bombs and all." The man shrugs. He only takes his job serious enough to make it count. Apparently that extends to his opinion of himself. "Marriage is, to my surprise, pretty awesome. Makes me kick myself for not giving it a shot sooner. But? If I had?" He wouldn't be here. "Yeah, planetside sucked bigtime. I was fortunate enough to be airborne. My Raptor crashed-landed on Leonis.. about forty miles outside Kythera. Joy of joys, lemme tell you. I'd have given anything for a nice ride on this fleet instead."

"Tell me about it. Me, I joined the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corp. They paid for my entire education to become an electrical engineer, but had to do a tour of duty. Figured it was a good payoff, you know? But then…" The bombs hit. "Hey, I'm not complaining. I'm got a good position here, and I was excited about it. And I survived having to be planetside. So, all things considered, I'm pretty happy with my choice, you know?" She shakes her head at his tale. "I don't envy you that. Couldn't have been easy. Good thing we found you, though. We could use all the hands we can get to help us out. And hey, now you're the chief engineer. That's not too shabby!"

"Niiiice. I hear that was a good program they had running. I couldn't even afford applications to college so I didn't have much of a choice. Area I grew up in? You could still see some of the effects from the first war when I left." Mark shrugs. The man made it out and that's all that seems important. "Yeah and you do good work so I can't see how things haven't worked out well in everyone's favor with having you aboard. I sure won't complain!" The man lifts his mug to take another sip. "Yeah. They snatched me off Leonis and slapped a rank on me. I was your rank grade five months ago. They found out I'd done most of the final systems integration work on the Praetorian and that was that. Luckily I know how to turn a wrench too."

"Yeah. It was pretty good. It was my father's suggestion, actually. To be honest, I think he just wanted me in the Navy. He was a proud officer. He didn't care what I did in the Navy as long as I was in it." Gallagher rolls her eyes. "And I figured it was a way to honour both my mom and my dad's choices in life. I took on the electrical engineering both out of interest and because it was my mom's thing, and I joined the navy for my dad. How do you like them crossed wires?" She smiles. "Thank you sir. I do try. I mean…" She pauses for a moment, thinking. "I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job, sir." It seems that's gotten the point across for her. "I know we're all glad to have you as the chief." She smiles a little. "Well, seems like you were just asking for a higher rank, doesn't it, sir?" She giggles. "I've been starting to learn about the mechanical engineering side of things myself. I figure it can't hurt to know both sides of the job, and then I can double doing both, if it's need of me."

Mark snerks, chuckling a bit. "Bah. That's not crossed wires. That's just keeping the peace. I've always heard that parents don't care what their kids do as long as they aren't into anything illegal or still living at home at thirty." AKA - successful. "But that works pretty well. Also glad to hear you all enjoy dealing with me. I try to stay out of y'alls way when I can. Last thing most people need down in that area is some jerk with pins throwing rank around like a fat woman's rear at a rump-shakin contest." He waggles his brow, sipping on the mug with a grin. "Good stuff. The more we can cross-train people, the better. We don't have the personnel to really get too specific anymore except in a few specialized areas. FTL and powerplants mostly for that. I like to try and dump as much responsibility on the enlisted as possible, though. Best way to see who is promotable and who isn't. Cream rises and all that crap, right? Also keeps me from having to micromanage. I don't care how a job gets done as long as its done right and when it needs to be done by."

"I guess that's one way of looking at it. Keeping the peace." Gallagher pauses for a moment, a thoughtful gaze on her face. "You know…that kinda makes me feel like an MP or something. In some strange way." She smirks. "And I know what you mean, sir. To be honest, I don't always like throwing around my rank. Sometimes it's necessary, but sometimes it's not. I try to do things myself, if I can, to alleviate the pressure on others. And I try to offer my help to others if it seems like they need it, you know?"

The ChEng chuckles. "Lords. An MP. I think its probably not your thing. You'd have to get tattoo's, starting grunting, making obscene gestures in public, cussing.. I think I'd rather just be physically dirty." The coffee gets another pull and he smacks his lips. "Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes its necessary. You get some jerk who wants to get mouthy and abusive." Mark rolls his eyes. "All I ask of my officers is a few simple things: Let the enlisted work with minimal interference, and set the example by working hard. Blows me away how much more you can get done by giving a smile and some encouragement rather than rawrrawrrawr growling in someone's face."

"Yeah…maybe I better just stay as an engineer." Gallagher chuckles, shaking her head. "I can deal with the electric shocks every now and then. Keeps the job interesting." Nodding along to what Mark says, she smiles. "Oh, I agree. Can't get anywhere on pure, umm…pure 'rawrrawrrawr'." She smiles softly. "I'll always remember what the first chief I worked with said: 'The crew is much like the ship. You've got to keep all the pieces bolted in just right. If you don't, the whole dynamic could fall apart to pieces.'"

"I always thought the really rank smells produced by a ship were the most interesting. Keep in mind that I use the term 'interesting' in the less positive light." Mark grins and downs the rest of his mug. "Smart Chief. Mine just kicked my ass a lot and told me I was a dumbass. Six years to Petty Officer Third? Gods. Guy was a douchebag." Mark groans and slowly rises from the chair. "Anyhow, I need to get back to work. Its been good yakkin with ya. You ever get bored or need someone to yell at, let me know." The man smirks before moving off.